What hourly rate should I charge as a freelancer?

Start from the pay you want to take home. The rate below covers tax, your costs, time off and the hours nobody pays you for. Your numbers stay on this device.

Take-home pay I want per year

Your time

Hours you work per week

Share you can bill

Weeks off per year

weeks

Costs and tax

Health insurance / month

Software, gear, phone / month

Retirement saving

% of pay

State tax

Platform or payment fees

per hour

per 8-hour day

per month

Get paid on time

The Invoice Tracker (Excel and Google Sheets) keeps every invoice in one place, flags overdue ones, shows how many days each client takes to pay and totals what each client brought in.

See the Invoice Tracker

How it is worked out

Billable hours = hours per week x billable share x (52 - weeks off). Admin, sales, email and learning are the unbilled share; 60 to 70% billable is typical for solo freelancers. The tool finds the yearly revenue where, after fees, costs, self-employment tax (15.3% on 92.35% of profit, the Social Security part stops at $184,500 for 2026), federal income tax (2026 single brackets, $16,100 standard deduction, 20% QBI deduction, half of SE tax deducted) and state tax, you keep your target plus retirement saving. Health insurance is treated as a cost here; self-employed health premiums are often deductible, which lowers the tax a little. An estimate for a single filer, not tax advice.